4. If you missed any of our events, buy yourself a digital ticket for GCSE Get Set, or Vocational KS4 (VCerts and Technical Awards) and watch the presentations and review the resources from the comfort of your own sofa.

5. Spend a morning reflecting back on Y10 and refining it for your incoming new cohort, and check the Resource Bank to save yourself time developing new teaching resources

7. Please take part in the Food Education Learning Landscape Research before 22nd July, as this will provide valuable information on how food education needs to be supported in the future. Go to survey

8. Sign up for the 3rd year of free CPD if you haven’t registered do so here

NEA-Together

Food Teachers Centre Community is running simultaneous meetings around the country to support the release of GCSE NEA1 on 1st September. We want to bring teachers together locally to support their planning and understanding of NEA 1, to help clarify any issues and share good resources to use.

These NEA-Together events will take place in first two weeks of September, particularly on Saturday mornings 2nd and 9th September or Twilights on any evening. This is a new community style meeting, which is less formal than our training days or face to face events, but similar to the free twilights we were able to offer in 2016 to launch GCSE planning.

But there is something very exciting about the whole country of food teachers getting together during this time to help each other, so we hope that you can join us. We know that this is will great for your school results, your own CPD and networking.

The programme will include:

Welcome and light refreshments (provided by the host)

A recorded or live presentation from Louise Davies, with essential tips on approaching NEA 1

Questions and Answers

Planning NEA 1 – Working in groups for each board

COST to teachers: A donation of £15 will be requested to cover any costs, such as room hire, refreshments and managing the booking system. Donations from student teachers can be more flexible.

Get preparation and presentation skills ready for GCSE or vocational practical exams.

Not everyone is confident with teaching higher level knife skills, meat preparation and presenting a great plate to photograph. So come along to our VERY LOW cost training, with after event support.

Our partnership with ‘Taste of Game’, means we can provide training and free ingredients for our schools.

These 2017-18 days will focus on extending students repertoire of knife skills, food preparation and presentation skills. But we will also be helping you with the rest of the specification- improving understanding of local, seasonal and sustainable produce, traditional british cuisine and preparing quick nutritious dishes that meet current dietary guidelines.

We will be offering:

– VERY low cost teacher CPD training days to teach you new skills and recipes, that will focus on higher level skills that can be completed in less than 60 minutes

– a follow up single delivery of FREE fresh ingredients for the recipes provided so that you can deliver the same quality of experience to your students as you got on the training day. You can stop worrying about how you will afford to get students to try new things.

– the opportunity to sign up for very low cost student MASTERCLASSES practical demonstrations and workshops at your school. We know that not every teacher is confident to deliver new skills and this provides an experienced DBS checked teacher to take the lesson with them.

Sign Up is FREE and means you will hear about training first. Check it out

Special Offers to all Food Teachers Centre from Billingsgate Seafood School

Need more confident fish fileting skills? Reduced price training courses for teachers and student masterclasses if you would like to bring a group to Billingsgate.

Huge thanks to Tracey Goodyere at Birmimgham City University, our wonderful presenters and our amazing exhibitors supporting our 24th June Get Set for GCSE event. It was a brilliant day with over 200 people coming to join us!

Congratulations to the prize winners!

Louise James

Utensa

Wonderful set of Bakeware

Maria Kakengi

Taste of Game

CookBook

Angela Cadwaller

Taste of Game

CookBook

Sharon Folkes

BNF

Online Nutrition Training

Gill Spittle

BNF

Online Nutrition Training

Clare Syer

TechSoft

£300 Software

Wendy Tims

Illuminate

Food & Nutrition Preparation Text Books and Revision Guides

Ruth Heatley

Cruncy Critters

Sample products

Get Set for GCSE! If you missed the event the digital ticket, with videos, handouts and presentations is still available £20 +VAT Here

Teaching VCERTs and Technical Awards? We also have a digital ticket, with videos, handouts and presentations for our vocational course day £20 +VAT Here

Crunchy Critters

A valuable and memorable learning experience – Add the wow factor to your teaching about protein and sustainability. NIck very kindly gives discounts to teachers and advice on which ‘critters’ to order, so do get in touch with him.

Teflon™ non-stick coatings is delighted to announce the launch of its 2018 Diamond Standard Awards for amateur chefs of all ages.

Keen Young Cooks 12-16 years
– to bake a favourite dish

Aspiring Student Chefs 16-19
years – to cook a game inspired signature

Keen Home Cooks 17 years and
over – to cook their signature classic

The winning student and young cook will receive a prestigious three-year Specialised Chefs Scholarship and for the home cook a bespoke cookery weekend. In addition to these prizes, bundles of Teflon™ non-stick coated cookware from the sponsors are awarded as well as cash prizes of up to £500. Joining Anolon (cookware sponsor) as category sponsors is new sponsor BergHOFF (knives sponsor) and the continued generous support of Utensa Wonderbake (bakeware sponsor) and NoStik (baking liner sponsor).

Entries are open from 6th March and can be submitted individually or via schools and colleges. Entries close on 1 November 2017 with the national final scheduled for late January 2018 at the Waitrose Cookery School, London. More information

Illuminate Publishing Ltd

This award-winning independent publisher of high-quality and inspirational educational resources, provides an exciting range of schemes for the new GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition specifications.

AQA GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition

WJEC GCSE Food and Nutrition

Eduqas GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition

They provide a range of colourful and engaging Student Books and Revision Guides accompanied by fantastic custom-made Digital Resources.

Student Books are awarding-body endorsed offering high quality support you can trust, and are presented in an appealing style to engage students with the content.

Revision Guides are packed with photos and diagrams to explain key concepts and are ideal for helping students consolidate knowledge and prepare for their exam.

Digital Book Bundles have been designed to really enhance learning and support teaching and are available without subscription. They are very simple to use and include a range of custom-made films and animations to demonstrate key cooking skills and explain difficult scientific concepts. They also provide a wide range of teacher resources all designed to help the delivery of the new specifications.

New Revision Guide from Collins – Sold out, but more stock is coming soon

Collins have an amazing track record and reputation as a publisher based on sound research in effective revision and study for exams.

The revision guide structure is based on the research that shows that repeated practice is more important than repeated study. It contains key facts for revision, quick quizes, mixed style exam questions, a student workbook or photocopiable section, practice questions and two full practice papers -Ideal for your mocks.

The education price for schools is ONLY £3.99, so don’t buy it from Amazon as the public price is £10.99. And as it is over 200 pages that’s great value.

Have your say about Food Education and help guide the future provision!

The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation and Food Teacher’s Centre, are carrying out a comprehensive review of the current delivery of food education in schools in England.

We are inviting stakeholders from academia, the school education system, non-governmental organizations, industry experts, and health and nutrition specialists to contribute their expertise and wide-ranging knowledge to this exciting project.

We would like to invite you to take part in the survey that is part of the overall research, this survey will take you about 10-15 minutes and should be completed by 22nd July 2017.

If you are a primary teacher please take 10 minutes to complete the survey here

If you are a secondary teacher, please take 10 minutes to complete the survey here

News from the team…

We would like to thank Kath Callaghan, Food Teachers Centre Associate, who has done amazing work for the last few years. Many of you will be familiar with Kath, as she has contributed to the on-line Q&A sessions, supported teachers in the closed group, trained technicians around the country and helped to manage the Resource Bank. She has decided that allotment and family activities are calling her in her retirement and will be stepping down from her current volunteering with us. We will miss you!

We wish Joe Mann, Food Teachers Centre Associate, great success in his new teaching job in Exeter, he will still be supporting the group and running training days, so look out for even more help for NEA 1 as he shares his inspiring food science teaching activities with us all.

We would like to congratulate Louise Davies on her new project this year, working as an ‘expert consultant’ to the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations. She joins a global team, drawn from organisations and universities around the world to develop a practical white paper on how to improve School Food and Nutrition Education (Healthy Diets, Sustainable Food Systems and Behaviour Change) in low and middle income countries. She’s leading on the theme of professional development, with capacity building and training strategies – and will draw upon the experience of setting up and leading the Food Teachers Centre.

Best wishes from the Food Teachers Centre team

Do you know another food teacher?

Please also pass this newsletter on and encourage your colleagues to sign up for their own copy each month. Sign up only takes a few seconds here

Food Teachers Centre News

June 2017

Getting Set for the new GCSE and Vocational Assessment

As this year is racing past, as we have journeyed around the country to see many of you, and chatted to you all on-line in the community group, the theme has become preparing for the new exams and addressing the changes that we face. The team tries to do all that it can to support you, and best of all is how the teaching group helps each other every day.

This newsletter brings you

– Some ideas to help you with the science aspects of the new GCSE

– Event news, including our digital tickets for those that cannot make it in person on the day of an event

– Q&A dates on facebook

– New Resources from Love Food Love Science

– New Resources from Aldi’s Get Set to Eat Fresh

– New Resources for teaching Food provenance

Getting help with Food Science

We know that some teachers are finding the teaching of the food science challenging in the new GCSE. But help is at hand!

Getting up to date

1. Here are some on-line courses to bring your own knowledge up to date

2. Enrol in the Food Teacher Professional Portfolio programme, there are some free webinars to guide you through food science. These are all recorded, so the library of webinar CPD can be accessed at any time. http://www.foodteacher.org.uk/

3. Join one of our training days to experience teaching ideas and NEA tips first hand, we have been all over the country during the year, but if you are quick there are still a few places on including Thursday 8th June (Northampton), Friday 9th June (King’s Lynn), Thursday 15th June (London), Sorry Leeds is full, Tuesday 20thJune (Didcot), Sat June 24th (Birmingham), and Monday 10th July (London).

4. Ask a Food Science Mentor to support you and your classes, The Institute of Food Science and Technology have NOW launched the mentoring scheme that Food Teachers Centre piloted and set up with their help.

2. Make sure you have joined the Resource Bank where teachers have been sharing their newly created teaching resources

3. Have a chat with your science department about how they approach the science enquiry. When the new GCSE was developed it was carefully aligned to use the same language and assessment as GCSE Science, so perhaps you can support each other, and make sure that students know that what they have learned in another part of the school will gain them marks in the food NEA.

Case Study – Kathy Brooks worked with the chemistry teacher, Jonathan Casalis de Pury, at her school (British School in the Netherlands) on the new GCSE

“The chemistry teacher was talking to me about his love for food. We were planning sessions for the baking club. This school based conference session gave us the motivation to put our words into action. We wanted to try new ideas and flavours. It was great for me as he knew the resources for molecular recipes. We plan to do a new session for next year.

The work on spherification was good. To show the video clip of how this technology maybe used to replace plastic water bottles. The session went well with the parsnip and banana recipe at the end as it was creative. I demonstrated a simple ice cream while we talked about the cryogenic freezing. The green eggs also provided a wow factor!”

The first NEA will be released on the 1st September 2017 but you have until early May 2018 to complete this with your class and send in the marks. Ideally, your students should have had the 120 hours guided learning before they embark upon the assessment. This assessment is about 8 hours, so ensure that your exams officer timetables this. You may want to schedule some double lessons to enable them to do longer experiments.

1. Check the guidance on your exam board website. There are some great resources on the exam boards to help you with your teaching don’t miss them. OCR, AQA, EDUQAS

2. Plan for a mock and get the students using the structure. Top tips that we give at our training days are:

a. Avoid google search – same time out of the valuable 8 hours by having example tests accessible to remind the students what they did in past lessons and best practice

b. Have example good investigations ready in their folders to refer to, such as those on the exam board websites and key textbooks

c. Use a checklist (such as the one attached to this newsletter) that has example of relevant tests that they could do for specific investigations, for example hyperlinked to relevant tests if asked a question on thickening, or bread/flour is on the paper.

3. To get the top marks students need:

d. Research that is relevant and informs the investigation

e. Plan the investigation

f. A clear hypothesis

g. To show an understanding of how the ingredients work – analysis, interpret findings from tests, say how the science is applied when cooking

h. A range of tests

i. Record – written and visually and use technical language

Food Provenance – Is 5 a day Killing the planet?

You know the Eat Well Guide but how about the Eat Well Harvest?

The GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition with its section on food provenance now covers how these food groups are grown, reared and processed – the Eat Well Harvest as it where!

The Discovering Our Countryside teaching theme “Is 5 A Day killing the planet?” starts with a thought provoking entry point video before covering the “Eat Well Harvest” for the food groups of the “Eat Well Guide” with it’s food stories videos on

Each of these food stories has a pupil workbook – (can be self-marking!) which they complete in conjunction with each of the food story videos.

It then considers how….

“Man, with food has many problems man without food has only ONE!”

In 2 further videos which cover some of the food problems. Ideal for setting up class debates which allow you to discuss food security and sustainability with a class of pupils better informed about modern food production.

The best bit – it’s all free log in here as quest to access this FREE Moodle Course http://bit.ly/GCSEFood (this link should take you straight to course if not log in as a quest no password needed)

Great new Resources for Get Set to Eat Fresh

Films, presentations, teacher’s notes and student worksheets – all ready for you to use. Download them here. All developed in conjunction with Aldi by Louise Davies for the Food Teachers Centre.

Come and join us in June in the closed Facebook group. You do not need to sign up for the event, simply be on-line and join the discussion. Look out for the banner above for dates and evening start time.

07 June – “Plan now to give yourself a good break in the Summer!” Kath Callaghan and Jill Oliver

12 June – “How to bid for and make the most of a technician” Barbara Rathmill

22 June – “Using apps in the classroom” Fiona Balding

27 June – “Demonstrations” Suzanne Gray and Kath Callaghan

If you would like to lead a chat session or help us, do let us know at info@foodteacherscentre.co.uk.

We don’t have a fancy office, we don’t have any paid staff or secretaries to answer the phone and reply to your emails, we don’t have any funding from government, we don’t charge a membership…. BUT we do have each other in the community, so that’s nearly 5,000 teachers to help each other, and that’s the way we like it!

We are really happy to share the launch of the new revision guide from Collins, which is being printed as we speak. We offered a great team of authors to Collins as they have such an amazing track record and reputation as a publisher based on sound research in effective revision and study for exams.

The revision guide structure is based on the research that shows that repeated practice is more important than repeated study. It contains key facts for revision, quick quizes, mixed style exam questions, a student workbook or photocopiable section, practice questions and two full practice papers -Ideal for your mocks.

The education price for schools is ONLY £3.99, so don’t buy it from Amazon as the public price is £10.99. And as it is over 200 pages that’s great value.

Teflon™ non-stick coatings is delighted to announce the launch of its 2018 Diamond Standard Awards for amateur chefs of all ages.

Keen
Young Cooks 12-16 years – to bake a favourite dish

Aspiring
Student Chefs 16-19 years – to cook a game inspired signature

Keen
Home Cooks 17 years and over – to cook their signature classic

The winning student and young cook will receive a prestigious three-year Specialised Chefs Scholarship and for the home cook a bespoke cookery weekend. In addition to these prizes, bundles of Teflon™ non-stick coated cookware from the sponsors are awarded as well as cash prizes of up to £500. Joining Anolon (cookware sponsor) as category sponsors is new sponsor BergHOFF (knives sponsor) and the continued generous support of Utensa Wonderbake (bakeware sponsor) and NoStik (baking liner sponsor).

Entries are open from 6th March and can be submitted individually or via schools and colleges. Entries close on 1 November 2017 with the national final scheduled for late January 2018 at the Waitrose Cookery School, London. More information

The summer term sees a mix of national events (with a large range of speakers), practical workshops and presentations. Choose the best one to suit your needs. Some are small groups, others have 150 people coming.

Cannot come on the day? Don’t be disappointed we will video the keynotes and collect all the presentations into a handy folder for you to view at your own pace. Order your digital ticket here. https://getsetonline.eventbrite.co.uk Only £20 +VAT.

Food That Works

Focuses on Vocational alternatives to GCSE

All awarding bodies will be there to run workshop on Tech Awards and VCERTs, includes BTEC, NCFE, City and Guilds, EDUQAS and AQA.

Cannot come on the day? Don’t be disappointed we will video the keynotes and collect all the presentations into a handy folder for you to view at your own pace. Order your digital ticket here. https://digitalfoodthatworks.eventbrite.co.uk Only £20 +VAT.

Regional events

GCSE Food Matters

For ALL GCSE boards. Key pointers for preparing students for NEA 1 and 2 and exam, scaffolding approaches with checklists, worked examples of investigation and practical skills NEA, marking and grading examples, help with learning terminology, plus supporting recipe choices and higher level skills to maximize marks.

Monday 10th July 2017

Louise Davies with Anita Tull, Author of the AQA Illuminate Book and digital resources

This 2-day course aims to give non-specialist and less experienced teachers the opportunity to develop their understanding, skills and knowledge of the requirements for Cooking and Nutrition (D&T) KS3.

Let us show you how to help students maximize their performance in NEA 1 and how to deliver food science and food investigations. This course aligns to the standards in the Food Teachers Professional Portfolio for your performance management process.

Directed interactive group workshops for a whole day where you will work together in teams to plan, carry out and evaluate at least four different NEA 1 investigations. Full of ideas for teaching the NEA 1 and top tips for carrying out science investigations in your classroom

These are practical, hands-on training days providing the skills and resources for secondary schools, with opportunities for discussion. Share best practice, top tips and great ideas when working in the food room.

Food Teachers Centre

News May 2017

New Books! Which is the

best revision guide for the GCSE?

The Food Teachers Centre was set up to share and improve teaching. We try to do things that will save you a lot of time, such as the creation of a Resource Bank that you can search easily for ready made resources from other teachers. With this newsletter we bring you a summary of the new revision guides for GCSE – this will help you make up your own mind about which ones are good for your pupils and the way you teach at your school. We hope that we can save you some time, as we have looked at all the new books and summarised their strengths and features, and also compared their costs. You will find the comprehensive review attached to this newsletter – written by Joe Mann. Joe offers an impartial view as he has not written any of the books.

This newsletter brings you

– Our summer term events programme

– GCSE Revision Guide review

– Continuing our theme of ideas to promote food teaching in your school

– Food Teacher Professional Portfolio FREE CPD

– Inhouse Manager – a new way to get your ingredients simply.

– Healthy Eating Week

– Just Great Teaching with Ross Morrison McGill

– Outdoor Classroom Day Thursday 18th May

– New revision Guide from Collins

– Launch of Teflon Diamond Standard Awards for 2018

GCSE Revision Guide Review

Given the task to read and review new GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition student revision guide books has been very interesting and enlightening. Each book has bought with it different strengths and each has come from a different angle in an effort to offer the student something that will best support them through the new GCSE. The key is that every schools is different, every teacher is different, every class is different and ultimately every student is different and therefore by each revision guide tailoring to a slightly different need they have succeeded in their aims to help and support and guide students through their GCSE revision.

In my reviews, I have tried hard to give a balanced view of each revision guide book, being critical where I thought necessary and praising where I felt it was due. To compare and contrast has been more of a challenge and so to demonstrate an objective and fair review at the end I opted for a graphical comparison. I listed all the things I have come to expect of a revision guide in the way of helpful content and checked if each book had these. I then listed all of the attributes of a good revision guide and graded each book on each of these attributes (with five stars being the best). Finally, I looked at the all-important value for money comparison. What I strongly urge you all to do is read the whole review in its entirety and please do not to jump to see which is the cheapest or has the highest rating. The reason for this comes back to what I said at the beginning, every student is different, and you know your students far better than me and you will know what tone they will respond to, and what type of learning resources will be best for them.

Thank you for reading the review and I hope it proves useful for you and your students. Joe Mann

Further tips on how boost food education in your school!

In our last newsletter, we gave a lot of tips on how to address threat to the subject in your school.

Is food undervalued in your school? Time to change your headteacher’s view of the subject!

We know that this summer term is always busy preparing for exams and with the additonal work created by the first run through of the new GCSE and vocational courses, so you may not thank us for suggested a task that will add 20 minutes to your busy workload. But in future it may turn out to be the few minutes that saved your subject from cutback and funding loss.

1. Simply take a copy of your scheme of work and highlight brightly all the lessons and content that are about healthy eating and nutrition.

2. Send it to your headteacher (*and governors) with a note reminding them of the new OFSTED well-being criteria, and suggesting that they might like a copy for their records for when OFSTED ask about the teaching of healthy eating so that your school can get ‘outstanding’ for this judgement.

The Food Teachers Centre will be running courses throughout next year to help improve you and your students skills ready for their GCSE or vocational practical exams.

Many of you came on courses to learn about chicken and fish, so we are pleased to announce our partnership with a major food education supporter, who has joined with us to provide training and ingredients for our schools. This is excellent news and we are very excited.

These 2017-18 days will focus on the next steps after chicken and fish, extending students repertoire of skills, improving their understanding of local, natural, seasonal and sustainable produce, and preparing quick nutritious dishes that meet current dietary guidelines.

We will be offering:

– VERY low cost teacher CPD training days to teach you new skills and recipes, that will focus on higher level skills that can be completed in less than 60 minutes

– a follow up single delivery of FREE fresh ingredients for the recipes providedso that you can deliver the same quality of experience to your students as you got on the training day. You can stop worrying about how you will afford to get students to try new things.

– the opportunity to sign up for very low cost student practical demonstrations and workshops at your school. We know that not every teacher is confident to deliver new skills and would like an experienced DBS checked teacher to take the lesson with them.

Look our for more news in future newsletters and on facebook.

And be ready to sign up quickly.

By the end of next year we hope to have trained at least 400 teachers and 12,000 students will benefit.

How to get ingredients simply…….. and tested by the Food Teachers Centre

Working together to make life easier for Food Teachers

Inhouse Manager is the leading provider of catering software in schools, hospitals and care homes, with over 20 years of experience in providing systems that reduce costs and save time, backed up with great levels of support.

We know that the ordering and purchasing of ingredients for students is time consuming – often being done in your own time and usually from the local supermarket, and so The Food Teachers Centre and Inhouse Manager Ltd have teamed up to help Food Teachers around the UK:

Inhouse Manager is a managed catering software system which automatically procures the right amount of ingredients and delivers them to you in time for your lessons – all you do each week is confirm the number of pupils cooking and the system does the rest, calculating the amount of ingredients required for the number of pupils you have input. The software provides you with picking reports, so you or your technician know exactly what ingredients, and the quantities, to pick for each lesson. And as if that on its own isn’t amazing, you are billed weekly on an agreed fixed price per pupil, making life simple for you and your Finance Department.

So, how does it work?

The Inhouse Manager team input your scheme of works, recipes, and estimated uptake numbers into the system – the software is managed by your Account Manager for you

You will then receive confirmation of the fixed price per pupil per lesson to provide ingredients for the period covered by your scheme of works

Each week, you simply confirm the number of pupils who will be cooking the next week by entering these into the software (full training and support provided)

Ingredients are delivered by Brakes / Bidvest etc. on pre-agreed days

You then receive a weekly invoice charging for the number of pupils entered onto the system at the agreed fixed price

No hidden costs – the software is free of any subscription or licence fees

Your finance team can also access the system to access any financial information required

What our schools say …

The Robert Napier School, Kent

“Using Inhouse Manager provides a good affordable, reliable service. It took no time at all to send our recipes to Inhouse Manager to set up deliveries. We just place the order with Inhouse Manager, stating the day the students are cooking, and the ingredients are delivered to us.

All the ingredients we have had have been of a high quality.

Inhouse Manager spends time making sure we have the products we need, in the amounts needed. Any problems and they are there to help and advise.

They regularly keep in contact with the school, visiting, e-mail or phone, to address any problems or provide updates.

We have found them to be an asset in providing our students cooking ingredients.”

Duke of York’s Royal Military School, Kent

“We have been using the Inhouse Manger service for just over a term and have been surprised at how easy it has become to order our ingredients for lessons. This new ordering system has saved time in relation to ordering and also reduced the paperwork I have to do for finance”.

Contact Simon Gray of the Food Teachers Centre on 07766 222262 for more information.

NEW CPD Event – perfect for food teachers and heads of departments and aspiring leaders

‘Just Great Teaching’ with Ross Morrison McGill

Ross has presented at some of our best events and comes highly recommended! He understands our work as a D&T teacher and Food teacher, and has some brilliant ideas.

“We will explore the most up-to-date ideas from research and practice to re-boot your thinking so you can return to school, equipped with strategies to use immediately in your own classroom. We will also give you the tools to deliver the training yourself to share with your own colleagues.”

Outdoor Classroom Day celebrates outdoor learning and play, and inspires schools everywhere to make outdoor learning and play part of the every day. Teachers can sign up their class or their whole school to spend at least one lesson outdoors on Thursday, 18 May. If you’re new to the whole idea, then use theirGet involved guide for advice and inspiration, and give it a go. If outdoor learning and play are already part of your normal week, why not use the day to celebrate what you’re doing and encourage other schools in your area to join in?

New Revision Guide from Collins

We are really happy to share the launch of the new revision guide from Collins, which is being printed as we speak. We offered a great team of authors to Collins as they have such an amazing track record and reputation as a publisher based on sound research in effective revision and study for exams.

The revision guide structure is based on the research that shows that repeated practice is more important than repeated study. It contains key facts for revision, quick quizes, mixed style exam questions, a student workbook or photocopiable section, practice questions and two full practice papers -Ideal for your mocks.

The education price for schools is ONLY £3.99, so don’t buy it from Amazon as the public price is £10.99. And as it is over 200 pages that’s great value.

Teflon™ non-stick coatings is delighted to announce the launch of its 2018 Diamond Standard Awards for amateur chefs of all ages.

Keen
Young Cooks 12-16 years – to bake a favourite dish

Aspiring
Student Chefs 16-19 years – to cook a game inspired signature

Keen
Home Cooks 17 years and over – to cook their signature classic

The winning student and young cook will receive a prestigious three-year Specialised Chefs Scholarship and for the home cook a bespoke cookery weekend. In addition to these prizes, bundles of Teflon™ non-stick coated cookware from the sponsors are awarded as well as cash prizes of up to £500. Joining Anolon (cookware sponsor) as category sponsors is new sponsor BergHOFF (knives sponsor) and the continued generous support of Utensa Wonderbake (bakeware sponsor) and NoStik (baking liner sponsor).

Entries are open from 6th March and can be submitted individually or via schools and colleges. Entries close on 1 November 2017 with the national final scheduled for late January 2018 at the Waitrose Cookery School, London. More information

HIGHLIGHTS! Summer term events -see full programme attached

The summer term sees a mix of national events (with a large range of speakers), practical workshops and presentations. Choose the best one to suit your needs. Some are small groups, others have 150 people coming.

Cannot come on the day? Don’t be disappointed we will video the keynotes and collect all the presentations into a handy folder for you to view at your own pace. Order your digital ticket here. https://getsetonline.eventbrite.co.uk Only £20 +VAT.

Food That Works

Focuses on Vocational alternatives to GCSE

All awarding bodies will be there to run workshop on Tech Awards and VCERTs, includes BTEC, NCFE, City and Guilds, EDUQAS and AQA.

For ALL GCSE boards. Key pointers for preparing students for NEA 1 and 2 and exam, scaffolding approaches with checklists, worked examples of investigation and practical skills NEA, marking and grading examples, help with learning terminology, plus supporting recipe choices and higher level skills to maximize marks.

Monday
5th June 2017

Louise Davies with Jacqui Drew, Author of the GCSE EDUQAS book

Monday 10th July 2017

Louise Davies with Anita Tull, Author of the AQA Illuminate Book and digital resources

This 2-day course aims to give non-specialist and less experienced teachers the opportunity to develop their understanding, skills and knowledge of the requirements for Cooking and Nutrition (D&T) KS3.

Let us show you how to help students maximize their performance in NEA 1 and how to deliver food science and food investigations. This course aligns to the standards in the Food Teachers Professional Portfolio for your performance management process.

Directed interactive group workshops for a whole day where you will work together in teams to plan, carry out and evaluate at least four different NEA 1 investigations. Full of ideas for teaching the NEA 1 and top tips for carrying out science investigations in your classroom

These are practical, hands-on training days providing the skills and resources for secondary schools, with opportunities for discussion. Share best practice, top tips and great ideas when working in the food room.

Food Teachers Centre News

MARCH 2017

Enjoy your Easter break!

The spring term has been a busy one for everyone – with the controlled assessment to complete and mark, as well as the new GCSE and vocational courses to teach. We wish you a pleasant break and look forward to welcoming you on-line or face to face at our events next term.

– Free CPD on Saturday 13th May (London) for less experienced teachers

Budget cuts are all over the news.

Headteachers and governors are making some difficult decisions as they are pushed into a corner. Some are restructuring and reducing staff, as the salaries budget is the only thing they can cut.

It is vital at this time that you show how food contributes to the whole school and the development of young people. Where headteachers and governors understand the contribution the subject makes – they will support it and not cut it.

Here are some key facts:

Curriculum legislation Facts

D&T Cooking and Nutrition was made compulsory in the national curriculum in 2014, as the government made a positive link between practical food skills and an understanding of nutrition with behaviour change and improved health for the future.

Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based* and which:

promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society

prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life

*See Section 78 of the 2002 Education Act which applies to all maintained schools. Academies are also required to offer a broad and balanced curriculum in accordance with Section 1 of the 2010 Academies Act.

All schools should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), drawing on good practice.

Heads have to assess the gender impact of curriculum changes, this would usually mean maintaining a range of D&T choices for both girls and boys, such as food, textiles, product design Gender Equality Duty

There is no legislated curriculum time for any subjects. GCSE courses have GLH of 120 hours, plus assessment.

Ofsted Facts

OFSTED also inspect ‘broad and balanced’ provision in all schools including academies. Their new inspection framework from 2015 has a new judgement on Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare (page 48-51) pupils are expected to be able to

‘explain accurately and confidently how to keep themselves healthy and make informed choices about healthy eating’

Sean Harford (OFSTED National Director, Schools) revealed that his inspectors will look at the extent to which our school successfully supports pupils to gain ‘knowledge of how to keep themselves healthy, including exercising and healthy eating’. Inspectors will place greater emphasis on this issue than before and will look for a culture of healthy eating throughout their visit. Under ‘leadership and management’ they inspect how school leaders ensure a healthy lifestyle and how the curriculum breadth and balance ensures pupils gain knowledge of a good diet and learn practical cookery.

Sean tweeted “We will look at healthy eating as part of curric and consider lunchtimes as social occasions and health contrib.”

Health facts

Research links learning to cook when children are young with healthier life chances later.

Teaching young people food education is part of the Obesity strategy. 21.7% of boys and 17.9% of girls in Year 6 (aged 10-11 years) are obese. By 2050 obesity is predicted to affect 60% of adult men, 50% of adult women and 25% of children. Urgent action is required.

Other compelling facts

Parents want it. A 2016 survey rated ‘learning to cook’ as the 5th most important life-skill along with searching the internet, using a mobile, connecting wifi and on-line banking.

Employers want it. There are careers for young people with the skills and knowledge. The food and drink sector is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, accounting for 16% of the UK’s total manufacturing sector in turnover, employing almost 400,000 people and with a turnover of around £76 billion. Current figures show that the industry suffers from a number of skills gaps and by 2022 we will need 109,000 new recruits.

Employment in hotels, restaurants, catering and events increased 13% between 2010 and 2014 to over 3 million people.

The food and farming sector employs 3.5m people in the UK which is nearly 1 in every 7 jobs. Farming is an important industry and has a vibrant future. British farmers and growers produce 63% of all the food we eat and in the future this amount will need to increase to feed a growing population.

Tips on how to give food education a positive profile in school!

1. Find out if any of the parents are involved in the food industry. Involve local companies in your lessons, as future employers they will be interested to talk to prospective employees. Make sure your head knows this is happening and spread the news around school. See if they will speak to the head about the importance of the subject! You can request a visitor here:

3. Offer to brief your board of governors on the new OFSTED framework and showcase what you are teaching in your scheme of work about healthy eating to meet the new criteria. Ensure your SLT has the OFSTED checklist called Creating an Ethos and Culture of Healthy Eating

4. Invite back your ex-pupils that have used their learning with you to be successful in their careers. See if they can speak in assembly about their work.

5. Have a campaign around exam time that links healthy food, revision and performance – to showcase the importance of good food and results. See if you can give a short presentation at assembly or do a news item.

6. Enter your students for competitions and awards to keep your profile high and give your school great local PR and regional press.

Other news and free resources

Sign up for FREE CPD, including a Saturday training event on 13th May (London) for less experienced or non specialist food teachers.

Katie Cooper, 16, from University College Birmingham, won Springboard’s FutureChef 2017 cooking competition, beating over 9,000 12-16 year olds from across the UK in the process. FutureChef has now seen over 100,000 school pupils involved since it began in 2000.

Katie beat 11 other finalists and served up a menu of pan-fried sea bass with cauliflower puree and a red wine reduction, followed by a dessert of chocolate cheesecake with raspberry and caramel shards.

Also well done to Daniel Goffe who won the competition the Food Teachers Centre team ran at the final.

Don’t forget that Futurechef is much more than just the competition – they offer free careers talks, chef demonstrations and visits, free teaching resources and Student Awards to all registered schools. Find out more

New Revision Guide from Collins

We are really happy to share the launch of the new revision guide from Collins, which is being printed as we speak. We offered a great team of authors to Collins as they have such an amazing track record and reputation as a publisher based on sound research in effective revision and study for exams.

The revision guide structure is based on the research that shows that repeated practice is more important than repeated study. It contains key facts for revision, quick quizes, mixed style exam questions, a student workbook or photocopiable section, practice questions and two full practice papers -Ideal for your mocks.

The education price for schools is ONLY £3.99, so don’t buy it from Amazon as the public price is £10.99. And as it is over 200 pages that’s great value.

The Food Teachers Centre Team will be bringing you a full review of all of the Revision Books that have been written for the new GCSE shortly.

Jamie’s Home Cooking Skills competition closes Friday 28th April

Home Cooking Skills competition 2017

The competition is open to all learners aged 14-19 years studying at a school or college in the UK delivering BTEC qualifications. Students will work individually. Learners don’t need to be registered onto the Level 1 or 2 Pearson BTEC Award in Home Cooking Skills to take part in the competition, but they will need consent from their parent/carer to enter if they are under 18.

If you are currently taking the Level 1 or Level 2 qualification, the competition entry can be mapped to contribute to your qualification. Even if you don’t win, you’ve added something to your portfolio! More information

Don’t miss a workshop and news about Pearson BTEC courses on Friday 7th July at Food that Works – vocational courses (London) Further information BOOK HERE

Launch of Teflon Diamond Standard Awards for 2018

Teflon™ non-stick coatings is delighted to announce the launch of its 2018 Diamond Standard Awards for amateur chefs of all ages.

Keen
Young Cooks 12-16 years – to bake a favourite dish

Aspiring
Student Chefs 16-19 years – to cook a game inspired signature

Keen
Home Cooks 17 years and over – to cook their signature classic

The winning student and young cook will receive a prestigious three-year Specialised Chefs Scholarship and for the home cook a bespoke cookery weekend. In addition to these prizes, bundles of Teflon™ non-stick coated cookware from the sponsors are awarded as well as cash prizes of up to £500. Joining Anolon (cookware sponsor) as category sponsors is new sponsor BergHOFF (knives sponsor) and the continued generous support of Utensa Wonderbake (bakeware sponsor) and NoStik (baking liner sponsor).

Entries are open from 6th March and can be submitted individually or via schools and colleges. Entries close on 1 November 2017 with the national final scheduled for late January 2018 at the Waitrose Cookery School, London. More information

HIGHLIGHTS! Summer term events -see full programme attached

The summer term sees a mix of national events (with a large range of speakers), practical workshops and presentations. Choose the best one to suit your needs. Some are small groups, others have 150 people coming.

This day explains the new GCSE and Technical Award routes, and gets you prepared for the new content and NEA assessment. You can mix and match food and textiles workshops, or stay with food throughout the day – the choice is yours!

For ALL GCSE boards. Key pointers for preparing students for NEA 1 and 2 and exam, scaffolding approaches with checklists, worked examples of investigation and practical skills NEA, marking and grading examples, help with learning terminology, plus supporting recipe choices and higher level skills to maximize marks.

Monday
5th June 2017

Louise Davies with Jacqui Drew, Author of the GCSE EDUQAS book

Monday 10th July 2017

Louise Davies with Anita Tull, Author of the AQA Illuminate Book and digital resources

This 2-day course aims to give non-specialist and less experienced teachers the opportunity to develop their understanding, skills and knowledge of the requirements for Cooking and Nutrition (D&T) KS3.

Let us show you how to help students maximize their performance in NEA 1 and how to deliver food science and food investigations. This course aligns to the standards in the Food Teachers Professional Portfolio for your performance management process.

Directed interactive group workshops for a whole day where you will work together in teams to plan, carry out and evaluate at least four different NEA 1 investigations. Full of ideas for teaching the NEA 1 and top tips for carrying out science investigations in your classroom

These are practical, hands-on training days providing the skills and resources for secondary schools, with opportunities for discussion. Share best practice, top tips and great ideas when working in the food room.

New qualifications – GCSE, VCERTS, Technical Awards – what do they mean?

DfE directed developers to make new GCSEs general, but ‘academic’ learning and removed the past vocational GCSEs. Alongside GCSE they created new Technical or ‘applied’ vocational qualifications for non EBacc subjects only.

‘ Technical Awards are broad, high-quality level 1 and level 2 qualifications in EBacc subjects that equip students with applied knowledge not usually acquired through general education. They should focus on applied study of a sector or occupational group, including the acquisition of associated practical or technical skills where appropriate. ‘ (DfE)

‘The reforms will mark a fundamental shift towards a simplified, employer-led system consisting of occupational routes that encompass all technical education, both college-based and apprenticeships.’ (DfE)

At key stage 4, students are encouraged to take up to three technical awards alongside a minimum of five academic EBAcc GCSEs.

Yes, they count for Progress 8!

Further details about Progress 8 performance measures can be found here:

Technical awards that count are included in this list (updated each year):

In 2018 food teachers have a choice of the following courses that are 120 hours (the same as GCSE):

601/7244/7 City & Guilds Level 2 Technical Award in Cookery and Service for the Hospitality Industry

A number of teachers have been asked by the leadership teams to review alternatives to GCSE. Some people have been claiming that these are easier to pass, or that they are for the less able or students with SEND. This is misguided.

‘Technical Awards are distinct from GCSEs and they complement and supplement the academic offer. They must, however, offer an equivalent level of rigour and challenge as GCSEs’ (DfE)

‘Rigorous and appropriate assessment arrangements, including external assessment, help to ensure that Technical Awards offer a comparable level of challenge to GCSEs’ (DfE)

GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition is also an applied subject but the context for the learning is general. VCerts and Technical Awards are vocationally focused. These are not second rate courses, or below GCSE performance! For some students, placing their learning in the world of work engages them, but it does not make it easier – as many at the age of 15 will never have been in a working kitchen or catering environment. Working in an unfamiliar context is more challenging. They are not easier, they are different, and may suit different learners.

The assessment is not easier – it is scrutinised by OFQUAL (the same as GCSE). Level 2 Technical Awards are the same performance level as Level 2 GCSE in the qualifications framework. Some courses allow a candidate to ‘drop down’ to Level 1, so that you do not have to decide in advance which Level to enter them for, which may be helpful (and cheaper than double entry).

In GCSE, the NEA and written exam marks are added together, so that a learner who does less well on the paper, may still pass if they do well in their NEA. This would not be true in a Technical Award where learners have to pass all the elements to pass the qualification, including a written paper.

In deciding if this award is more suitable for your students than GCSE, take a close look at the Sample Assessment Materials (SAMs) published for each and any guidance/mark schemes. Try out the papers on your current cohort and see how they do and where they struggle.

‘[OFSTED]Inspectors found instances, in around 10 of the schools visited, where students with special educational needs and/or disabilities struggled to explain what they knew in response to theory-based written examinations. In these cases, schools were not working closely enough with examination boards to find alternative methods to enable students to convey what they know and can do’. (Ofsted, Meeting technological challenges? Design and technology in schools 2007–10)

Courses for pupils with SEND?

If you have been asked to find an alternative to GCSE for a group with SEND, here are some things to consider .

Does the course need Progress 8 points?

How realistic is the content and level of expectation for your learners? How well does it provide for their future needs and provide progression for them?

Does the style of written examination and Non-Examination Assessment suit your learners?

What percentage of the grade is given for Non-Examination Assessment? Is there teacher assessment?

Is it possible to break up the course into smaller accreditation units if they do not complete the full course?

Are you able to deliver the course over a longer period of time?

What special provision is made by the awarding body for those with SEND?

Is it possible to take written question paper electronically and/or submit NEA in an electronic format?

Is it possible to adapt the course and assessment so that multiple accreditation is possible in the same class with good planning?

This advice is taken from soon to be published 2nd (updated) edition of the award winning ‘Meeting SEN in D&T’(Louise T Davies, published by Taylor& Francis)

If the GCSEs and Technical Awards are not for your students, then you can also look smaller qualifications such as Unit Awards Schemes (UAS) to recognise student achievement. UAS provides simple and effective recognition for learners achieving short units of accessible learning, and provides a real way to motivate, engage and encourage.

How to succeed with a high quality vocational course

Teachers that are asked to choose between offering a GCSE or a vocational course are placed in a difficult position. Ideally, these two different routes could be available if there were two option groups allowed. Both are high quality qualification routes, and we should take care to educate parents that this is not about a two-track education system, as they may remember from the past. Technical Awards equally lead to further qualifications and University entrance.

But Technical awards do require the right learning environment and teaching expertise. Vocational qualifications were developed to be applied qualifications. This is very important to the success, respect and value of these courses to employers and the public.

If learners are to succeed they need:

A teacher that is ‘occupationally competent’ to lead and assess the course, the nature of the Level 2 course means that a teacher is expected to have a food teaching qualification or relevant industry experience

Regular applied learning experiences – in vocational contexts! So, teaching in a catering kitchen, with access to industry standard equipment, and learning set in real life scenarios are crucial. Schools will need to be able to create an on-site restaurant, a pop up, café or regular catering events and have access to worthwhile work experience to make this learning real. Learners need regular access to teachers with relevant vocational experience and expertise, either through their teacher or sustained partnerships with local catering colleges, chef lecturers, and visiting chefs.

High quality learning resources that bring the course to life and engage learners. It takes time for a teacher to develop all the teaching resources need to deliver the course and will require significant investment by the school and support for the teacher time. Learners will also need sufficient access to a wide range of ingredients.

Both GCSE and Technical awards are highly valued for their contribution to young people’s general education and for introducing them to the amazing career opportunities in the food and drink sector, particularly at this current time when more home-grown skilled employees will be needed to fill increasing shortages.

‘Food That Works’ is a vocational qualification training day, 7th July, London

This day will give you a better understanding of the vocational alternatives to GCSE courses – what is available, how it is measured in Progress 8, which course is suitable for your school and students and how to plan and teach it.

Presentations

Senior representatives from all exam boards will present their new courses and assessments, including WJEC/EDUCAS Level 1/2 Hospitality and Catering, AQA Level 1/2 Food and Catering, and NCFE Level 1/2 Food and Cookery.

How to get better industry support to bring your vocational course to life and make learning accessible and relevant for your students, and improve attainment.

Where does the Level 1 and 2 lead to? How to recruit for your courses by demonstrating rich career prospects and give up to date careers advice

Free resources and ideas from those writing course materials and textbooks

A choice of workshops on how to plan and teach Choose either : WJEC/EDUCAS Level 1/2 Hospitality and Catering, or AQA Level 1/2 Food and Catering, or NCFE Level 1/2 Food and Cookery. BTEC and City & Guilds invited but not confirmed.

We launch the bookings for this event with great news that Diana Choulerton (OFSTED, HMI National Lead for D&T) will be speaking.

Our 5th National Face to Face is divided into opening presentations and choices of many workshop sessions. You can follow a Food programme for the day, a Textiles programme for the day – or mix and match if you teach both!

There are GCSE workshops from each exam board to guide you through NEA 1 & 2 (Food Preparation and Nutrition):

This includes a choice of workshops repeated through the day with:

1. AQA(Jane Waters, Senior Examiner)

2. EDUCAS-WJEC (Fiona Graham, team leader for moderation and team leader for the written exam)

And we have attached our favourite list of resources for sustainability and commodities to this email – many thanks to Suzanne Gray, Associate for that brilliant list

Get Set to eat Fresh with Aldi

1.2 million young people Get Set to Eat Fresh with Aldi and Team GB’s Brownlee brothers

Olympic athletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee have joined forces with Aldi to pledge their support for Get Set to Eat Fresh, an ambitious educational programme set to improve the eating habits of 1.2 million young people in the UK by 2020.

Get Set to Eat Fresh, for 5–14 year-olds, is brought to life by Team GB athletes who inspire students about the benefits of healthy eating by providing insight into athlete nutrition and their own eating habits. Teachers can also access free, fun and engaging curriculum-linked resources about healthy eating To register for free today, visit http://bit.ly/2kL98aH

In a thought-provoking animation, it looks at how Sam eats from the age of two to 62 – showing how the eating habits he learns in childhood chip away at his health through his life.

And finally, all teachers need some friendly advice at some point….

We all care for each other in our on-line community, and so many of you have found a friendly helping hand when you needed it, but we are not trained counsellors, so I was very interested to come across this charity that supports teachers with telephone help, email or live chat. They have some great resources on managing stress in teaching, challenging behaviour, work-life balance, relationships at work. So if you have issues that you cannot raise with this group or need further help with, then check them out https://www.educationsupportpartnership.org.uk/

Best wishes from the Food Teachers Centre team

Do you know another food teacher?

Please also pass this newsletter on and encourage your colleagues to sign up for their own copy each month. Sign up only takes a few seconds here

Prizes and recognition for achievement in our subject are really important motivators. FutureChef Student Awards have been introduced to recognise and reward the achievements of young people as they learn and develop their cooking skills.

Submission of work is easy and can be done any term! You can enter your students for one of the following categories with evidence via a short statement and two photos. GO ON!

1. Most improved

2. Best workmanship

3. Most creative

Demo Day, held on Thursday 16 March 2017 as part of British Science Week, is an opportunity to celebrate the power that hands-on demonstrations have to inspire, excite and fuel the imaginations of young people.

Get a higher profile for food in your school! We’re calling upon food teachers to get involved and pledge their participation as part of the national campaign, which last year saw over 100,000 participants, over 10% of which involved food tech demos! There are a host of resources online with handy hints and tips and links to fantastic example activities. Pledge your class or school to take part, and get a free marketing pack including stickers to help you celebrate the day: Get resources here

Promote it through social media as well. The Twitter handle is @ScienceWeekUK and the hashtag is #DemoDay17 and don’t forget to tag in @FoodTCentre

Here are the activity packs – Have fun as these activities are linked to Kitchen Chemistry and are great for linking with your Science teaching colleagues

Discovering Our Countryside – some short videos for GCSE

“Is 5 A Day killing our planet?” A food provenance set of resources is free to use during this development phase This thought provoking theme starts with an entry point video asking students to consider some of the problems of modern food production – food miles, food security, sustainability etc

where and how foods are
grown, reared, or caught and the primary and secondary stages of
processing and production

the impact of food and
food security on the environment, local and global markets and communities

Try out the Cereals food story with your learners and then let them know how it goes – there is a feedback form on the bottom of the food story webpage – any other comments would be most welcome….

And don’t forget this portal

Chefs into schools – where can you find them?

Academy of Culinary Arts – Chefs Adopt a School programme

Adopt a School, incorporating Chefs Adopt a School and Hospitality in Schools, is a national charity which aims to tackle specific health inequalities, such as obesity, and also the lack of knowledge about food and healthy eating. We deliver food education in schools all over the country and many of the schools we work with are in deprived areas where there is a high percentage of free school meals.

Career Presentations

Career presentations are delivered by Springboard Ambassadors across the country to INSPIRE young people about the varied and exciting careers available in kitchens, food service management groups and the wider hospitality industry.

Why not try your local college, school caterer or your favourite nearby resturants?

Pictured is a an award winning school chef in Halifax – Tony Mulgrew – you too may have one right on your classroom doorstep!

In London Food teachers are lucky enough to be supported by Westminster Kingsway and University of West London, who hold regular open days for students as well as supporting their local schools.

Get in touch with your local college!

Westminster Kingsway OPEN DAYS
Monday 06/02/17 4pm-7pm

Monday 13/03/17 4pm-7pm

A chance for parents, guardians and prospective students to gain an insight into the facilities and programmes on offer at Westminster Kingsway College. Presentations, demonstrations, tours and individual advice can be obtained on the following dates at the Victoria Centre in Vincent Square:

And FINALLY – Don’t forget we have our very own chefs on the Associates team, such as Simon Gray, who are happy to come out to your school

As well as Mike Beaton, Royal Marines, who can be contacted and booked in the closed group.

Louise’s top free resources to help you teach practical skills

Practical Skills recommended Resources

This is not a complete list, but a guide to some effective resources. We encourage all teachers to load these links to their school server, and save as a list for students doing research for the new GCSE, for flipped learning, for homework and for differentiated activities during busy practical sessions. Let us know of other good resources you find through the closed group.

With her food science training Barbara
takes the lid off cookery, and the science behind it. The site is designed
for those keen to bring more knowledge to their kitchen as they learn about
food or for anyone teaching food, or food science.

Butchers are available
around the country to assist in sausage making sessions, so why not contact
your local butcher and get him involved, or track down your local butcher
through www.findabutcher.co.uk

This day will give you a better understanding of the vocational alternatives to GCSE courses – what is available, how it is measured in Progress 8, which course is suitable for your school and students and how to plan and teach it.

Presentations

Senior representatives from all exam boards will present their new courses and assessments, including WJEC/EDUCAS Level 1/2 Hospitality and Catering, AQA Level 1/2 Food and Catering, and NCFE Level 1/2 Food and Cookery.

How to get better industry support to bring your vocational course to life and make learning accessible and relevant for your students, and improve attainment.

Where does the Level 1 and 2 lead to? How to recruit for your courses by demonstrating rich career prospects and give up to date careers advice

Free resources and ideas from those writing course materials and textbooks

A choice of workshops on how to plan and teach Choose either : WJEC/EDUCAS Level 1/2 Hospitality and Catering, or AQA Level 1/2 Food and Catering, or NCFE Level 1/2 Food and Cookery.

Please also pass this newsletter on and encourage your colleagues to sign up for their own copy each month. Every term we have a prize draw from our email list and one lucky subscriber gets a free place at a training event! Sign up only takes a few seconds here

Food Teachers Centre

News

November 2016

With over 4,000 food teachers in the closed group and as we approach our 4th birthday, here are some good reasons to take part:

It is such an easy way to stay up to date and to connect with other food teachers if you are on your own.

This term we launched the Resource Bank, thousands of files shared on facebook can be accessed offline, making it easier to search and saving everyone time.

We just started the second year of our partnership with BNF for the Food Teacher Professional Portfolio, bringing you FREE monthly webinars, regional twilights and a workshop day for non-specialists. www.foodteacher.org.uk

Thousands of food teachers have come on our face to face events – we offer food safety, technicians, non-specialists, outstanding food, food science and GCSE training days for secondary We also offer two different sorts of practical primary days.

We safeguard people in the facebook group, we restrict entry so that SPAM does not find its way in. We also hold high professional standards and monitor the group so that everyone is protected in this safe space for discussions. It meets teaching union guidelines for teachers using social media. (Check these here)

Each week (except holidays) we hold on-line Q&A or SOS sessions – bringing you information about free resources and answering questions to support you. Look out for our listing in this newsletter and on the events page of the group.

#Tell Theresa campaign…

Join our messaging campaign about the role that food education can play in the government’s drive to address Obesity. Food teachers can play an instrumental role in their schools in educating young people about healthy eating and encouraging behaviour change. See our recent presentation here. But we can only do this if we have the resources – shorter lessons, larger classes and lack of funding for our subject are limiting our work. So do let the government know.

Tweet Theresa May and your MP (http://tweetyourmp.com/) using #TellTheresa #FoodTCentre

Send her and your MP photos about healthy eating learning, and make our points, here are some examples that you can send out:

Support food teachers in obesity challenge with more time for lessons and ingredients for all to take part (106)

Support food teachers who teach healthy eating and change behaviour by making food education compulsory for academies (117)

No child should be left behind in food education because they cannot afford ingredients for healthy eating lessons (114)

Use sugar tax to fund healthy cooking lessons for all, no child should be left out because they cannot afford ingredients (123)

Include us and let’s make some noise #FoodTCentre

Check out our recent discussion about how the Obesity Strategy will impact on the work of food educators in primary and secondary schools.

Presentation and discussion is on the closed facebook group (you have to be a member to see video and read comments).

Events coming soon…

Inspiring Learning for Food and Textiles teachers

New D&T and Food GCSEs and Progress 8! Never have food and textiles teachers faced such an array of new challenges and opportunities! How will you know you are getting it right in your school? We find ourselves sitting in the third bucket, competing with every other creative and vocational option. With a decline in numbers and funding for D&T we need to understand the wider scene and prove that our lessons are relevant, vibrant, and essential for EVERY child. This presentation equips you with ideas to secure a better future for your subject at school, by addressing Ofsted concerns, linking to key government drivers and developing skills that future employers value.

Inspiring Textiles in the Classroomwith Nicky Simpson

Improve your practical skills with both hand and machine sewing for Key stage 4 and 5; including smocking, shadow folds, heat press innovation and computer aided design. Begin a construction sample resource to use in your classroom to create exciting and innovative products. Ideas for excellent products, lesson activities, schemes of work that lead to improved coursework/exam performance. Plenty of inspirational examples and resources to photograph.

Stimulating and thought provoking food science investigations in KS3 and Y10 in preparation for the new GCSE, prepare for the new NEA (food science investigation). This practical and presentation session will help you gain a better understanding of the working characteristics, functional and chemical properties of ingredients.

“Meeting fellow food teachers, learning more about the new GCSE…..OFSTED. To be honest I loved it and thought it was the best course I have been on. “

“Excellent speaker and information was so vital to everyday teaching…..thank you!”

“Gave me a chance to clarify so many issues (time to think with lots of practical advice from subject specialist experts).”

“Really well presented / very informative / fantastic resources / should really help with planning.”

Catch up with national news and practical ideas to help with GCSE teaching (with Louise Davies, Jenny Ridgwell and Anita Tull)

Find out what is happening on GCSE, Technical Awards, and post 16, together key issues such as assessment, progression and attainment, advice on managing lessons, seeking funding, news on pupil premium, Progress 8 and option blocks, and OFSTED inspections.

This presentation will help you become

Better informed and resourced

Clearer on national development and able to guide your school about subject needs

Save time by knowing where to find advice and free resources to help you.

Louise Davies will also introduce the new GCSE revision guide for Collins, looking ahead with you to Year 11 and how best to prepare your students for assessment. Followed by a workshop full of valuable KS3 and GCSE teaching and learning techniques from Anita Tull and Jenny Ridgwell – experienced teachers and well known authors, with loads of new teaching ideas and resources to take away.

Ideas, inspiration and fun for students is the brief for this workshop.

Jenny Ridgwell will follow Albert Einstein’s “Everything should be made as simple as possible” view to look at quick and easy ways to tackle investigations and evaluations for NEAs for Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE.

She will use the Nutrition Program and other IT skills to show how to present work in a quick and modern way to appeal to today’s students.

The workshop will include up to date nutrition information, using the star profile and other tools for the practical assessment

Jenny will share her ‘real world’ investigations along the way.

Anita Tull will share ideas on how to use a range of teaching activities to bring the new GCSE to life – engaging and motivating students. With advice and guidance on the preparing your Year 11 students for their NEA investigations and practical assessment. – focusing on the essentials, together with ideas that make learning stick ready for the exam.

Feeling unsure of teaching practical food lessons and concerned about techniques and management of students and rooms in these fast-paced lessons? Our full course of 2x 2 days for NON-SPECIALIST FOOD TEACHERS shares best practice, top tips and great ideas when working in the food room.

The full course is planned as two days back to back for KS3 and two days back to back for GCSE. You can book onto just the two days that you need (depending on the age range you are teaching), or the full course to get a complete coverage of the skills and techniques for the secondary age range.

This programme of training is based on face to face interactive sessions with a wide range of practical skills being covered, but ensuring how to deliver these appropriately to students. We aim to build teachers self-esteem and competency in practical application through providing practical skills training and guided learning…bringing the Wow factor into your classroom!

Outstanding Food…

FIona Balding’s course will focus on the following areas to help you develop strategies to embed health and wellbeing across the school and to deliver better food lessons throughout the year.

Action 9 of the School Food Plan is centred on the monitoring of schools in relation to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the time and space given to lunch.

Under the new Ofsted’s Common Inspection Framework 2015, inspectors assess how “children and learners keep themselves healthy, including through healthy eating”. Inspectors will look at “the food on offer and visit the canteen to see the atmosphere and culture in the dining space and the effect this has on pupils’ behaviour.” Inspectors will also look at the “breadth and balance of the curriculum, of which practical cookery is now a part.” This forms part of a Personal development, behaviour and welfare judgement.

Find out how you can support
your school to embed this through the guidance in the School Food Plan
(January 2016 Ofsted Inspection
Update)

Myth Busting: Ofsted do not expect specific preparation for the inspection – they want you to teach well throughout the year. We will share with you our ideas on:

– A recipe for Success…

Presenters Joe Mann and Simon Gray

Are you concerned about the amount of food science content you are expected to teach in the new GCSE? We will show you how to include each of the key food science concepts paired with relevant key cookery techniques in a realistic, creative and engaging way, looking at a realistic lesson by lesson overview for just seven weeks!

The day will take you through ways to simplify each food science concept using a combination of achievable short cooking activities, each matched to an easy and engaging practical food science experiment or investigation.

You will experience a series of deliverable lessons all mapped against the key concepts and techniques you need to cover.

A series of practical cooking activities linked to a science experiment or investigation that can be carried out in your lessons to develop the understanding and knowledge of the food science required for the new GCSE.

As a vital new part of the GCSE and KS3 programme of study this course is invaluable to all secondary food teachers who would like to develop their teaching skills in areas that may be controversial, create debate and emotional responses to food issues. As teachers and role models – how can we produce less packaging waste; reduce our planets’ gas emissions and plan for a future that will feed the ever-expanding population with good nutritious food?

The day will consist of a combination of information, discussion, practical tasks and hands on learning. Part of the day will also be spent in looking at new and innovative ideas for producing our food in a more ecologically sound way e.g. hydroponics.

Our first two food safety courses quickly sold out, so book as soon as you can

Presenter Barbara Rathmill

This one day course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety (CIEH) and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards 9.1-9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

Cultivating a Healthier School (Primary)

(Grow, Cook, Eat your own produce) with RHS

RHS horticulturists have teamed up with the Food Teachers Centre to provide a practical course to enable you to put pupil’s health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food.

· Meet the new Ofsted criteria and School Food Plan requirements with effective growing and cooking

Springboard’s FutureChef is the best industry backed resource matched to the food related curriculum. Aimed at young people aged 12 – 16, it inspires them to cook through:

Classroom resources & activities

Industry skills demos & challenges

Competitions & awards

FutureChef has many great benefits that help to:

Directly support the food curriculum

Offer interactive classroom resources

Nurture industry links

Teach life skills and build confidence

Promote healthy eating and nutrition

More info https://futurechef.uk.net/

Don’t miss Westminster Kingsway College, London – OPEN DAYS…

Monday 28/11/16 4pm-7pm

Monday 06/02/17 4pm-7pm

Monday 13/03/17 4pm-7pm

Westminster Kingsway College was established in 1893 by Cesar Ritz & Auguste Escoffier. We at the college are rightly very proud of our heritage and still look to hold dear to ethos of their training whilst developing our students to go out into industry with the techniques, skills and knowledge required to be a part of one of the most dynamic trades in the world.

The open evening events are a chance for parents, guardians and prospective students to gain an insight into the facilities and programmes on offer . Presentations, demonstrations, tours and individual advice can be obtained on the following dates at the Victoria Centre in Vincent Square:

Class sizes

There has been a worrying number of people talking about being asked to accept classes larger than the room is designed for. We know that budget cuts in schools are causing heads to make some difficult decisions on how they may have to save money, and we can see that increasing the class size is considered a solution. Many head-teachers are unaware of the health and safety implications (or the impact on pupil engagement and attainment), so it is best to draw attention to this and suggest ways that these issues can be overcome.

We have developed some advice and a video to help you address this situation in our school.

Food Teachers Centre

News

October 2016

GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition is launched this term with

some great new lessons to engage students

We are off! This term sees the start of the new 2016 GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition which has its first exam in 2018. Over the past year, the Food Teachers Centre has come together as a community to support each other

holding training for all teachers to update their practical skills and knowledge, particularly in nutrition, food science and knife skills.

piloting a mentoring scheme with the IFST (Institute of Food Science and Technology) to bring practising food scientists into our schools.

discussing how schools might get support with the costs of food ingredients brokered by FDF (Food and Drink Federation).

working in partnership with BNF (British Nutrition Foundation) to support the new framework of skills for food teachers, audit tool and CPD portfolio, with free monthly webinars and regional face to face training.

providing an extensive free resource bank of over 1,000 teaching resources, shared by teachers with each other to improve practice.

holding Sunday and Monday night Q&A to bring you the latest in valuable teaching resources and programmes to keep everyone up to date with the support that is available.

Embracing the new GCSE – new skills, new standards – WOW! Great work...

Thank you to Gemma Sharpe and Jessica Watts for the hours of hard work to produce great open evening displays and activities that they shared. And thank you to everyone who has sent us their amazing examples of displays, we have set a folder up in the Resource Bank – all set for next year!

News from our supporters…

Westminster Kingsway Open Evenings…

Westminster Kingsway College (Hospitality & Culinary Arts) invites you, your pupils and parents their open days in London, at the Victoria Centre.

Monday 17/10/16 4pm-7pm

Monday 28/11/16 4pm-7pm

Monday 06/02/17 4pm-7pm

Monday 13/03/17 4pm-7pm

Westminster Kingsway College was established in 1893 by Cesar Ritz & Auguste Escoffier, two of the most prominent Hospitality figures of the age. Along with Baroness Burdett-Coutts they conceived the cookery school which has trained the next generation chefs and hospitality students for over 100 years. We at the college are rightly very proud of our heritage and still look to hold dear to ethos of their training whilst developing our students to go out into industry with the techniques, skills and knowledge required to be a part of one of the most dynamic trades in the world.

The open evening events are a chance for parents, guardians and prospective students to gain an insight into the facilities and programmes on offer at Westminster Kingsway College. Presentations, demonstrations, tours and individual advice can be obtained on the following dates at the Victoria Centre in Vincent Square:

With their extensive gastronomic practice and proven excellence, Westminster Kingsway College is committed to innovation and high performance in Hospitality and Culinary Arts. They have enviable links and collaboration with the international hospitality industry, leading chefs associations and principal figures from the world of gastronomy devoted to high quality training and development.

You tried them at our face to face events, you may have even seen them on TV. But if you would like to bring an UNFORGETTABLE lesson to your classes, then make use of the CRUNCHY CRITTER Discount code – EDU10- on their website. We have added the receipes and information to our resource bank.

Nick at Crunchy Critters will willing to give you sample packs, advice on what to order and so on – simply contact him via the website https://www.crunchycritters.com/ Don’t forget to mention you’re a member of the Food Teachers Centre.

Gain food investigation support during the first year of teaching the new GCSE Food preparation and nutrition. We cover how to help students maximize their performance in NEA 1 – the food Investigation and how to deliver food science and food investigations.

This one day course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety (CIEH) and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards 9.1-9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

Are you concerned about the amount of food science content you are expected to teach in the new GCSE? We will show you how to include each of the key food science concepts paired with relevant key cookery techniques in a realistic, creative and engaging way, looking at a realistic lesson by lesson overview for just seven weeks!

Directed interactive group workshops for a whole day where you will work together in teams to plan, carry out and evaluate at least four different NEA 1 investigations. This will be an immersive experience, featuring a series of fun activities, full of ideas for teaching the NEA 1 and top tips for carrying out science investigations in your classroom. Collaborate to plan your schemes of work for Year 11 NEA 1 for your chosen boards.

This is a new course for 2016 / 2017 brings to life teaching food journeys from field to fork. As a vital new part of the GCSE and KS3 programme of study this course is invaluable to all secondary food teachers who would like to develop their teaching skills in areas that may be controversial, create debate and emotional responses to food issues. As teachers and role models – how can we produce less packaging waste; reduce our planets’ gas emissions and plan for a future that will feed the ever-expanding population with good nutritious food?

RHS horticulturists have teamed up with the Food Teachers Centre to provide a practical course to enable you to put pupil’s health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food.

Meet the new Ofsted criteria and School Food Plan requirements with effective growing and cooking

Those teachers already enrolled on the Food Teacher Professional Development Programme are emailed directly with invitations and reminders to join FREE monthly webinars and regional twilight events. These events are only open to those on the Programme and are supported by the All Saints Educational Trust.

Please also pass this newsletter on and encourage your colleagues to sign up for their own copy each month. Every term we have a prize draw from our email list and one lucky subscriber gets a free place at a training event! Sign up only takes a few seconds here and is free.

If you would like to join our closed facebook group, our website link above explains how this works.The website explains our terms and conditions. Our on-line community is a professional group and we adhere to the guidelines for social media usage set out by the major teaching unions to safeguard all. You can find us here – https://www.facebook.com/groups/foodteachers/

We look forward to seeing you at our next events and chatting on-line.

Food Teachers Centre News September 2016

Welcome back to the

new school year!

We do wish you well at the start of the school year, particularly to the large group of us who start teaching the new GCSE, its exciting but also nerve racking time for everyone. At times like this, it is great to exchange notes and ideas with colleagues, and so many people have already uploaded their new Schemes of Learning to share – its been so helpful and kind, so please continue.

In this email you can read what we are doing to try to help you all as a team of volunteers:

– free and other courses designed to meet your needs

– a resource bank of shared files (offline from facebook) to make it easier to search for what you need

– regular on-line Q&A sessions with resource providers so that you know where all the great free resources are.

Obesity Strategy

– what does it mean for us?

A plan for action! The government aims to reduce childhood obesity in the next 10 years – we know that this is a complex task, but that education plays a vital role in changing attitudes and behaviour towards healthy eating and lifestyle choices. It is the key reason for making KS3 Cooking and Nutrition compulsory in KS1-3, and giving the new GCSE a focus on healthier eating.

The direct cost of obesity to the NHS is estimated to be £4.2billion a year.

Almost one in four children in reception and more than one in three children in year six are either obese or overweight, and children in more economically deprived areas are twice as likely to be obese than those in more affluent areas. Treatment of childhood obesity is estimated to cost up to £195m per year. If growth in childhood obesity continues at the current rate over half the children in the UK will be obese or overweight by 2020. As food teachers we need to show the active role we are taking to help address this very serious issue.

2015 was the first year that more people in the world died from chronic diseases – such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, respiratory disease and daibetes – than from communicable diseases. Cardiovascular disease accounts for 17.5 million death annually, and diabetes 1.5 million!

There are a number of behavioural risk factors that contribute to chronic diseases – poor diets, high salt and high sugar, low activity levels etc. But as teachers know (and behavioural economists have proved) – awareness of the right thing to do doesn’t necessarily lead to changed behaviour. A survey showed 85% people knew we should eat 5-a-day, but only 47% actually did.

As teachers we sholud constantly challenge ourselves to think about how we can postively encourage lifestyle behaviour changes – perhaps with less traditional teaching modes and by giving students a more active role in this learning through games, investigations and trying things out for real in our lessons. We know that solutions that are imposed are less popular and successful. We also know that students are heavily influenced by their friends, and the way the environment around them is designed (such as school canteens and food rooms).

There has been a lot in the press over the summer, and there are some points of interest for food teachers that are mentioned in the action plan.It reads:

” Schools are a vital part of our plan, and have opportunities to support healthier eating, physical activity and to shape healthy habits. Schools also have unique contact with parents and can signpost them to information and advice on keeping their children healthy. From September 2017, we will introduce a new voluntary healthy rating scheme for primary schools to recognise and encourage their contribution to preventing obesity by helping children to eat better and move more. This scheme will be taken into account during Ofsted inspections.”

The healthy rating scheme is metioned specifically for primary, but we also know that School Food Champions in secondary schools have been instrumental in improving school food – and that long term this will have a massive impact on positive health.

We also know that the new Ofsted framework and the checklist developed by the School Food Plan supports our work. If you have missed those discussions – you can follow these links.

Over many months, the volunteers at the Food Teachers Centre have downloaded and filed useful resources that have been shared by the group. We are making this new RESOURCE BANK available off-line, so that you can look for resources without having to log into facebook. If you would like to sign up to gain access, all that we ask is that

– you are a member of the closed group

– that you share your own resources to be allowed to take others

– that we continue to respect copyright and recognise those that help us to produce new activities for our classes

A huge thanks to all the Associates looking after this, particularly Kath and Fiona. Please note that we have no intention of charging for this service, so please keep sharing your documents and useful resources.

The Wellcome Trust have launched The Crunch to allow teachers and pupils to examine our relationships with food, exploring cutting edge research, and think about how we can eat in ways that can keep our planet and ourselves healthy.

The secondary kits were sent to the Head of Biology but there is plenty in there for Food teachers too so do get stuck in and ask them to share the goodies.

The Olympics were amazing this summer – so don’t forget about these great food teaching resources to use that highlight Team GB athletes Jade Jones, Jack Laugher and Liam Phillips – find out how food has played a special part in their achievements and how they use food to celebrate as wellGet Set to Eat Fresh

FREE ON-LINE events

in the closed facebook group this half term

SOS Sunday On-line Support

Come and join us each Sunday (except school holidays) in the closed facebook group.

You do not need to sign up for the event, simply be on-line and join the thread under the post

Once again this year we bring you events all around the country. Thank you for hosting us at your schools – this keeps the costs down and means that we can bring your training (not for profit) at less than half the price of commercial providers. If you would like to host an event – offer a room (you get a free place), we’d love to hear from you – so contact Simon.Gray@foodteacherscentre.co.uk

With the success of the joint food and textiles event held by Food Teachers Centre and Textiles Skills Academy in London in June 2016, many teachers asked us if we could hold a similar event locally and on a Saturday. So, we are bringing a few of the top features of this training day to venues across the country throughout 2016-17.

New D&T and Food GCSEs and Progress 8! Never have food and textiles teachers faced such an array of new challenges and opportunities! This presentation equips you with ideas to secure a better future for your subject at school, by addressing Ofsted concerns, linking to key government drivers and developing skills that future employers value.

Following on from the successful 2016 series of Practical Food Science training events the next 2016-17 series with Simon Gray and Joe Mann will concentrate on applying the teaching principles in day to day food teaching.

Part one will focus on teaching the practical application of food science in the classroom followed by part two focusing on the practical application of the food science investigation of the GCSE Non Examination Assessment 1 (NEA 1). Part two is scheduled to start in the Summer term in 2017 to help you plan for assessment in the Autumn term.

The day will take you through ways to simplify each food science concept using a combination of achievable short cooking activities, each matched to an easy and engaging practical food science experiment or investigation.

You will experience a series of deliverable lessons all mapped against the key concepts and techniques you need to cover.

A series of practical cooking activities linked to a science experiment or investigation that can be carried out in your lessons to develop the understanding and knowledge of the food science required for the new GCSE.

Feeling unsure of teaching practical food lessons and concerned about techniques and management of students and rooms in these fast-paced lessons? Our full course of 2x 2 days for NON-SPECIALIST FOOD TEACHERS shares best practice, top tips and great ideas when working in the food room.

This is a new course for 2016 / 2017 brings to life teaching food journeys from field to fork. As a vital new part of the GCSE and KS3 programme of study this course is invaluable to all secondary food teachers who would like to develop their teaching skills in areas that may be controversial, create debate and emotional responses to food issues. As teachers and role models – how can we produce less packaging waste; reduce our planets’ gas emissions and plan for a future that will feed the ever-expanding population with good nutritious food?

It explores:

Why we need food security

How we will feed the future population and global food production issues.

PRIMARY! Cultivating a Healthier School (with Royal Horticultural Society)

Cultivating a Healthier School (Primary) ONLY £120 +VAT

RHS horticulturists have teamed up with the Food Teachers Centre to provide a practical course to enable you to put pupil’s health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food.

Meet the new Ofsted criteria and School Food Plan requirements with effective growing and cooking

For further information on the Food Teachers Professional Portfolio Programme (a joint programme between BNF and Food Teachers Centre) see www.foodteacher.org.uk

This framework provides you with a set of standards for accomplished teachers to plan and discuss your CPD, as part of your performance management or self development process.

Those teachers already enrolled on the Food Teacher Professional Development Programme are emailed directly with invitations and reminders to join monthly webinars and regional twilight events. These events are only open to those on the Programme and are supported by the All Saints Educational Trust.

Please also pass this newsletter on and encourage your colleagues to sign up for their own copy each month. Every term we have a prize draw from our email list and one lucky subscriber gets a free place at a training event! Sign up only takes a few seconds here

Food Teachers Centre

June-July News 2016

News: Celebrating 100 events

The Food Teachers Centre Associates are pictured here celebrating at their planning meeting in Surrey and with teachers in London who were at the 100th event in June!

The Food Teachers Centre are proud to have shared over 100 events with you in the last 18 months. We have travelled to every part of the country to support you with the new KS3 and GCSE curriculum, to support technicians and non-specialists teaching food. We’ve seen the impact of our practical skills and food investigations workshops in your teaching – we know that so many more teachers are ready for higher level GCSE skills. We’ve been able to bring you fantastic free networking events with our supporters such as Springboard Futurechef. We had our first event for special schools last week and hundreds of teachers came together in May, June and July to plan their new GCSE scheme of work and gain the support of colleagues. The feedback has been amazing, and we will continue to work with you to bring high quality events for a price your school can afford.

None of this would be possible without our brilliant host schools and their food teachers- thank you to all of you!

And of course, a huge thanks to the Associates – what a team of volunteers we have! And our guest presenters, who travel in the wee hours, spend nights way from home, set off at the crack of dawn and bring you the most up to date and inspiring training they can.

We haven’t seen a training programme like this since the days of ‘Licence to Cook’, when the government funded a half-day training for every food teacher, and that team managed to train every school over four years. In these times, when that kind of government funding has long gone and seems never to return, we are very proud that the food teachers themselves have taken back control of their own professinal development and support through the Food Teachers Centre.

Please continue to attend our events in 2016-17, and offer to host at your school for a free training place and many other benefits to our loyal helpers. Our new training year brochure will be out in the summer holidays.

We are more than just events.

The Food Teachers Centre is more than just the events. The Associates continue to volunteer to attend meetings to support the voice of food teachers. Recently, Simon Gray and Louise Davies attended the All Parliamentary Group on School Food at the House of Commons. With so much political change its important that people help us to deliver ‘better food teaching’. We also continue to discuss an action plan on food ingredients with the Food and Drink Federation, who have promised to work with us to find a solution to this problem in schools. We work together with a range of important groups including the Agriculture, Horticulture Development Board, Countryside Classroom, Royal Horticultural Society, Childrens Food Campaign, Springboard Futurechef and the Institute of Food Science and Technology.

And finally, news on our Resource Bank of facebook files. Many teachers struggle to search for what they need on facebook, there is simply too much excellent work shared with colleagues. We have an off-line copy of the files that are searchable by keywords, and we will be sharing with you over the summer how you can get access to that resource bank. As these items have been shared freely amongst colleagues we have no intention of charging for this service. The Associates have been happy to devote their time to filing, sifting and sorting and providing this for you. Continue to share on facebook, and the files will be even further populated, great for the new GCSE. A big thanks to Fiona and Kath for all their behind the scenes work on this.

Well Done all, and we hope you have a great summer break. Remember that the team are always there to support you, even in the holiday times

FREE! Food Teacher Professional Portfolio

Over 1,300 teachers and HLTAs have registered for this professional development programme since its launch in October 2015. The FREE programme is designed to support teachers throughout their career (including trainee, newly qualified and supply teachers) enabling them to audit, plan, organise and record their professional development. www.foodteacher.org.uk

The FREE programme comprises monthly webinars and emails with supporting resources and free face to face events. The live webinars are recorded and can be accessed at any time.

During 2016/17 events include:

four twilight professional development sessions – nutrition, food science investigation support and resources;

Register and complete the audit before 31 July 2016 to receive your organiser in September 2016!

FREE Resources –

Get Set to eat Fresh

Celebrate food with Team GB

Join the countdown to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by registering for Get Set to Eat Fresh, an education programme created by the British Olympic Association in partnership with Aldi. Use the programme’s exciting curriculum-linked resources to give 7-14 year-olds the skills and confidence to cook and enjoy healthy food.

This summer sees the launch of a new range of resources called Celebration of Food, which encourages schools across the UK to celebrate food and tell the Get Set Community all about it. Simply share your story on the website, send a photo or use the official hashtag #GetSetEatFresh for the chance to win Team GB signed merchandise or Get Set to Eat Fresh stickers. Get students to discover food and national dishes of a country in which the Olympic Games have been held. You can run your very own celebration event at your school featuring the dishes that your class has researched and prepared.

Watch the video featuring Team GB athletes Jade Jones, Jack Laugher and Liam Phillips to find out how food has played a part in the special moments in their lives and how they use food to celebrate with friends and family.

SOS Sunday On-Line Support

We are taking a break from SOS over the summer – but in the autumn term visit us in the closed facebook group Sundays at 7-8pm whilst experts answer your questions. Remember this is AMA – ask me anything (about the topic of course!). Look out for the logo above and follow the discussion thread. Also look out for our MONDAY Q&A sessions, we are inviting those people and organisations that provide free resources to tell you all about them and how to find them.

Face to face events

All of our training is linked to a Food Teacher Professional Portfolio programme

RHS horticulturists have teamed up with the Food Teachers Centre to provide a practical course to enable you to put pupil’s health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food.

Meet the new Ofsted criteria and School Food Plan requirements with effective growing and cooking

Outstanding Food

This course will focus on the following areas to help you develop strategies to embed health and wellbeing across the school and to deliver better food lessons throughout the year.

· Action 9 of the School Food Plan is centred on the monitoring of schools in relation to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the time and space given to lunch.

· Under the new Ofsted’s Common Inspection Framework 2015, inspectors assess how “children and learners keep themselves healthy, including through healthy eating”. Inspectors will look at “the food on offer and visit the canteen to see the atmosphere and culture in the dining space and the effect this has on pupils’ behaviour.” Inspectors will also look at the “breadth and balance of the curriculum, of which practical cookery is now a part.” This forms part of a Personal development, behaviour and welfare judgement

Find out how you can support your school to embed this through the guidance in the School Food Plan (January 2016 Ofsted Inspection Update)

· Myth Busting: Ofsted do not expect specific preparation for the inspection – they want you to teach well throughout the year. We will share with you our ideas on:

This full-day course helps Food Technicians with clarity about their role. The presentations, discussion and workshops provide a platform for them to develop their role further.

The morning presentations and discussions:

Outline and clarify the role of the food technician.

Suggest how the technician can support the work of the food teacher.

Provide essential up-to-date information regarding the importance of learning about food within the wider school curriculum.

Review and develop practical skills and foster discussion with other technicians.

Afternoon workshops and discussions:

Build confidence and competence in systematising food safety in the classroom. This includes understanding the importance of food handling, risk assessments, temperature control, and understanding about food allergens and intolerances.Learn best practice in the range of tasks that food technicians encounter in their daily work.

Explore how to effectively prepare and manage different food activities within the classroom, including demonstrations, practical work, group work, food science investigations, and practical exams and so on.

What Technicians say about their day:

“The course excelled in covering Health and Safety and the new Food and Nutrition requirements. I was also very impressed with the presentation pack to refer to later.”

“It was a really useful event meeting others in the same position as oneself. The course was very informative and will help me a lot in the near future.”

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY! Bookings open soon for

Wallesend (NE) 11th October 2016

Surrey (1st November 2016)

Oxford (10th November 2016)

Caerphilly, Berkshire, Brighton

www.foodteacherscentre.co.uk

How to get in the Closed Facebook group………….

We have two opportunities to join us on facebook – one is a public page for everyone to ‘LIKE’. We post news stories about food teaching and news, so please go to this page and ‘LIKE’ it to get news in your facebook newsfeed.

Our second place is the closed is a closed group only for food teachers and trainee teachers.

The closed group protects the conversations within the food teaching community only. Once you have requested to join we will send you a message and ask that you confirm the current school you work in and we will check that this matches our records. Please check your ‘other’ inbox folder, as this message may go there if you have a secure facebook account.

Once cleared to join the group you accept our guidelines of participation.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/foodteachers/

Best wishes from the Food Teachers centre team

Do you know another food teacher?

Please also pass on this newsletter and encourage your colleagues to sign up for this monthly newsletter. Every term we will have a prize draw from our email list – one lucky subscriber will get a free place on a training event of their choice.